Runaways And Street Children

Nobody seems to know for sure how many children work in India. Many, like Balaji, a brave and engaging orphan from a factory town in Bihar, are runaways and street children who must work just to survive. Some are sold by their parents into bondage. Yet others toil in the fields or shops alongside family members, who can be among the worst slave-drivers of all.

Some say they are invisible. But they are not.

India’s last census found that minors make up 12 percent of the laboring population. Estimates are as high as a mind-boggling 100 million – more than the entire work force of Germany, France & Italy!